Open Access Support 2023/2024
UKRI & Innovate UK Funded Research - Open Access Block Grant
What does it cover?
UKRI articles and conference proceedings submitted after 1 April 2022: all peer reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers published in proceedings with an ISSN or platform are within scope.
UKRI includes AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC and Innovate UK.
Articles and conference proceedings:
How do I comply with the funder's open access policy?
Make your article immediately open access via a journal/publishing platform (Gold) or use a repository for self-archiving (Green).
UKRI Compliance Route 1 (gold)
a. Publish in a fully open access journal or platform
We can pay article processing charges (APCs) in open access journals. UKRI is providing an Open Access Block Grant to support implementation of this policy.
Compliance Route 1 (gold)
b. Publish in a subscription journal covered by a 'Transitional Agreement'
Compliance Route 1 (gold)
c. Publish in a subscription journal with 'Transformative Journal' status
Open access publication in hybrid titles outside these agreements will no longer be permitted with payment from the OA block grant.
UKRI Compliance Route 2 (green)
Publish in a subscription journal and self-archive the author accepted manuscript (AAM) in the repository with a CC-BY licence
'For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence [where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence may be stated instead] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.’
Monographs, book chapters and edited collections are included in the policy from 1 January 2024.
Further information is available from their website.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
Organisations are expected to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is considered and supported when allocating funds from the open access block grant.
JISC provide details of the criteria journals must achieve in order to meet this status. You can also find a definition of a transformative journal on the Plan S website.
To decide if your chosen journal is a transformative journal you can check the list of cOAlition Plan S transformative journals or use the Plan S Journal Checker tool.
Wellcome and Horizon Europe use the Plan S definition for transformative journals.
"A Transformative Journal is a subscription/hybrid journal that is committed to transitioning to a fully OA journal. In addition, it must:
UKRI apply the JISC transformative journal requirement definition for subscription and hybrid journals.
UKRI require a compliant green open access route to be available in a transformative journal. This means that you are able to deposit the author accepted manuscript with a Creative Commons CC-BY licence and release it upon publication with no embargo (rights retention).
For a journal that meets the UKRI transformative journal definition you can follow the green route and add the accepted manuscript to RIS with a CC-BY licence and no embargo, or you can use the gold open access route.
* Use this link to explore the current status of the Springer Compact and Nature Journals agreement negotiation.
We will update this guide and our webpage when we have further information.
Phone +44 (0)1792 604567
Open Access
Library Research Support Team
Singleton Park Library
Swansea University
Swansea
United Kingdom
SA2 8PP